June 2014 Post-Election Analysis: Lieutenant Governor

We now move on to the race for Lieutenant Governor which will see former California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring take on sitting Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom in the November run-off.

The June election was between eight candidates and unfortunately for Republicans Gavin Newsom is teetering close to 50% of the vote despite having one other Democrat on the ballot (ballots are not completely finished being counted).

Nehring advances to November after easily finishing ahead of Republicans David Fennell & George Yang. Here are the statewide results on the race:

Candidate

Votes

Percent

Eric Korevaar (Party Preference: DEM)

224,800

5.5%

*

Gavin Newsom (Party Preference: DEM)

2,022,663

49.9%

David Fennell (Party Preference: REP)

348,390

8.6%

Ron Nehring (Party Preference: REP)

949,328

23.4%

George Yang (Party Preference: REP)

324,446

8.0%

Jena F. Goodman (Party Preference: GRN)

94,224

2.3%

Amos Johnson (Party Preference: P&F)

38,307

0.9%

Alan Reynolds (Party Preference: AE)

54,157

1.3%

Turnout in Orange County is slightly concerning if you look at the fact that Newsom finished in first place, However, the vote total for all Republicans in OC totals 56% of the vote and Nehring finished 20% ahead of the closest Republican challenger:

Nehring is not one of the Republican candidates that I would say is in great position going forward. Newsom is likely going to campaign extremely hard in order to show strength for 2018 where it is rumored that he might take on Attorney General Kamala Harris for Governor. Newsom did not come anywhere close to the numbers that Jerry Brown had in spite of the fact that Brown faced more opponents and had two better funded challengers.

I am going to vote for Ron Nehring for the good of the Republican Party and because I think he would make a much better Lieutenant Governor than Gavin Newsom. However, this particular seat will be an uphill battle unless Nehring can raise a lot of money going forward.

There are at least five of us who generate south OC voter guides every election cycle that are distributed to our friends and family. Every one of us recommended Ron Nehring for Lt. Gov. Im certain we had a positive impact on his success in OC